How to make star lanterns!

A friend of ours made star lanterns for a party recently, and inspired us to do the same!

 I hadn't actually seen the lanterns, but had a photo which gave enough of an idea! So we went to the hardware shop and got some lengths of dowel (these were 2400 by 6mm I think).
For the big lantern I cut them into 1m lengths (10 pieces). Taped 5 together into a flat star, then the other 5 into another. Taped the flat stars together. Then, with han and skye on board, taped some struts in the middle to bend the star into 3D. That was the tricky bit!

Then I made some flour & water glue, and we used old patterns (for making clothes with) to cover the stars.

Han pasting away..

We ran out of time to organise proper lighting, so cut a hole and sat them on lampstands! Voila!

Time to party :)

DIY Onesie

Today I made a onesie. Well, I started it yesterday but sewed it today:

(sorry about the crappy photo)

It was lots of fun. I made it on Hanwen's new sewing machine - yay for her mum randomly giving her a sewing machine!!

It turned out fairly different to the picture I first had in mind, but I'm pretty happy with it. Particularly because I didn't end up needing to get any buttons (or make any buttonholes for said buttons) cos I went for the wraparound effect.

I didn't want to buy anything, so I'd looked around for a piece of clothing that

1) I didn't care about cutting up

2) was big enough to make into a one-piece suit.

And I found a pair of wraparound pants that I never wore because they were too long and flappy and annoying:

And I cut them up. Yay for recycling things!

And then what did I do with my new onesie?! I went to a onesie party in it of course!

the day I died and other stories

Twas the night of our housewarming, several moons ago (ok maybe two), right on 6pm (the official party-beginning time) and I was in my room preparing myself to receive guests( ie trying to find clean clothes to wear) when I hear a knock at the door. And a strange voice.

"Hi, I'm a friend of Josiah's, I was meeting up with him here". Oh ok. Didn't know Josiah was coming tonight. And inviting a friend. Random.

One of my friendly housemates invites him in. He takes a seat and they make awkward conversation.
I come out, introduce myself, sit down. The penny still hasn't dropped.
Conversation begins again, I look away, and all of a sudden I'm being poked in the arm with a plastic card by mystery man.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! That means he's my assassin*. That means I'm dead. Why the heck did they let him in?!?!?!?!?!

That was my head voice.
In reality I wailed 'oh no!', laughed dolefully, and offered him a drink. He declined, and took himself off soon afterwards, the dirty deed accomplished.

Apart from the grisly start, it was a great night.

There was sushi:

And fire:

(photo courtesy of Em)

The other stories?

Well, we had a Passover celebration, with as much Jewish tradition as we could muster. Rich and thought-provoking.


And our clothesline got squashed by a giant branch:

(photo courtesy of Mandie)

I should really have a good rave about Postcolonial literature and lamb-eating and bike-riding and QUIDDITCH. especially quidditch.
Maybe another time..


*uni-wide game of Assassin. You kill your target by hunting them down and touching them with a card.

Jesus' Mad Tea Party

If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party.

The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business.
The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified.
The world says, Drive carefully - the life you save may be your own - and Jesus says, whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love.
The world says, Get, and Jesus says, Give.

In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is labouring less under the cross than under a delusion. "We are fools for Christ's sake," Paul says, faith says - the faith that ultimately the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, the lunacy of Jesus saner than the grim sanity of the world.

- Frederick Buechner

I think I need to get a little crazier.

Ingredients for an Eastern European Christmas Party...

Food:
Borscht (beetroot soup)
Homebaked bread
Golabki (polish cabbage-wrapped mince & rice rolls)
Bigos (meaty sauerkraut stew)
Pierogi/Pelmeni ("pig's ears" - little dumplings. The ones we made had potato & mushroom in them)
Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage)
Mashed Potato & gravy
Pork
Chrusty (deep-fried doughnuty twists, dredged with icing sugar)



Friends:
a fun & friendly conglomerate from the worlds of uni & newie

Drink:
Home [shh..] distilled insanely strong firewater.. or just ordinary vodka if you please
Russian Caravan tea

Gifts: (distributed by freakish furry St Nick)
something for everyone!


The only real thing missing was snow!

parrty week

Another week in the life of yours truly, which happened to be of a rather party-ish nature:*

Sunday: Community BBQ lunch at a friend's place on a dreamful, summery afternoon
Monday: Essay-writing party(?!) - no, this wasn't actually a party, but there was a short diversion which involved driving around the neighbourhood with my housemates collecting 'useful' things from other people's hard rubbish deposits!
Tuesday: A spontanteous pre-birthday cake-eating party
Wednesday: Birthday dinner for a housemate o' mine
Thursday: Terrific and Tantalising Tea party - so much tea, so many teapots, so little time..
Friday: Another Birthday dinner for my housie!
Saturday: Soccer 'Ball' - celebratory season ending dinner, presentations, champagne and dancing into the night - woot!


*disclaimer: it may appear that I am always riding merrily high on a torrent of good spirits, wild abandon, and, er, feasting. Well, this disclaimer is just to say that I'm not. (well, the last mentioned is practically eternal, but apart from that -). Sometimes (strangely, it often seems to happen when I have a major assignment due the next day) I am very much not so, and would like to curl up in a corner and die quietly for a while. Actually, I think somewhere towards the end of the above week, I did just that. Fortunately for me, the sun never stays away too long..